Resources: Program Evaluation and Education Research (PEER) Group

The 1:1 Administrator Survey is a survey tool that collects teacher perceptions of the behaviors and characteristics of a principal leading a digital learning initiative. It is a tool that can help in the process of identifying areas for leadership improvement and professional development.

The 1:1 Classroom Teacher Survey is a survey tool that collects teacher reflections on digital teaching and learning in their school. More specifically, regarding digital teaching and learning it asks teachers about their: perceptions of professional development, infrastructure, and administrative support; frequencies of their own teaching behaviors; beliefs about digital teaching and learning; and several open-ended reflection prompts.

The 1:1 Student Survey is a survey tool that collects student reflections on digital teaching and learning in their school. More specifically, regarding digital teaching and learning it asks students about their: frequencies of activities and device use; perceptions of the level of support at their school; beliefs and perceptions about digital teaching and learning generally; comfort with variety of digital technology skills; and several open-ended reflections.

Following the push to improve science literacy and implement science education programs in the 1970s, organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) have worked fervently to develop programs aimed at reforming science education and increasing science literacy among America’s students. The emergence of teacher-scientist partnerships in K-12 classrooms has proven influential in broadening teachers’ content knowledge, understanding of scientific inquiry, and increasing teachers’ confidence in their abilities to teach science. Unfortunately, research exploring how these partnerships impact teachers’ identities, in general, and teachers’ self-efficacy, pedagogical practices, and identities as scientists, more specifically, has remained limited.

The NC ASSISTments Replication Study began in the 2017-18 school year and aimed to replicate the findings from a prior study conducted in Maine. That study found that the students of 7th-grade mathematics teachers who used ASSISTments for homework scored significantly higher on the Terra Nova mathematics exam than the students of teachers who did not use ASSISTments. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic forced North Carolina’s schools to move to all-remote instruction in March 2020 and the End-of-Grade exams were canceled, which made the replication study impossible to complete. This forced a change in the ASSISTments study and a re-evaluation of what researchers could learn about the use of ASSISTments in schools in North Carolina. Using surveys and interviews, researchers at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation conducted a case study of teachers’ use of ASSISTments in in-person instruction and in remote instruction, both during the NC ASSISTments Replication Study and outside of the study.

In order to better understand the current state of the Arlington Public Schools' 1:1 program transition, the district partnered with the Friday Institute Research and Evaluation (FIRE) team at North Carolina State University to conduct a small-scale study. The purpose of the study was to identify implementation successes and challenges and to signal opportunities for program growth moving forward.

Arlington Public Schools (APS) partnered with the Friday Institute Research and Evaluation (FIRE) team at North Carolina State University to evaluate the progress of their 1:1 project, which aims to ensure that every student from grade 2 through 12 has a personal digital learning device (1:1) to support instruction.

Despite decades of school reform initiatives focused on closing the racialized achievement gap, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students continue to experience systemic barriers to a…

This case study details the implementation and impact of the Learning Differences program at Manning Elementary School (MES) in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Section one provides an overview of the Learning Differences program. Section two describes how the Learning Differences program was implemented at MES and how data were collected. Section three draws on qualitative and quantitative data to illustrate the program’s impact on MES teachers and students. Section four discusses the seven key lessons learned from the implementation process. The authors intend for this case study to be a practical resource that schools and districts can reference as they implement their own learning differences initiatives.

From January-December 2021, five school districts participated in The Innovation Project’s (TIP) Early Learning Network, an initiative that centers equity in addressing vulnerable children’s learning needs. Participants on district teams underwent the Liberatory Design Process—a seven step approach to centering equity in reimagining and redesigning educational interventions. Researchers from the Program Evaluation and Education Research (PEER) Group from the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation sought to better understand (1) how the design process impacted district teams and (2) the supports and barriers to design thinking and how to improve the design thinking process. Through case study methodology that incorporated focus group interviews, one-on-one interviews and artifact analysis, the researchers found that notions of accountability and intentionality, the awareness of self and others, and the development of community partnerships were impactful for districts conducting this equity work. Further, intradistrict dynamics, the availability of resources, team-level dynamics and non-linear processes frequently acted as supports and barriers to successful implementation of the Liberatory Design Process.